This is a new segment, highlighting the darkest secrets of your blogging and reading habits for the world to see. It is also a great way to promote yourself. If you want to take part, flick me an email on nzproof [at] gmail.com and let me know your blog name.
Our featured guest today is Melanie from Sparks from a Combustible Mind. If you haven’t had a look at her site, go and check it out. Her thoughtful and sometimes cynical opinions are always a welcome addition to my day.
Can you describe your blog in 20 words or less?
Maybe. It’ll be difficult because I’m sort of known for my wordiness. Here’s a couple of words: Eclectic and (I hope) humorous.
How do you measure success in a blog?
By how much the writer is ‘themselves’ (or what they want the blogging world to view them as). I know there are those who like portraying a false front (as it were), but I doubt any I read fall in that category. I hope not anyway.
Where do you find information about blogging?
This one is tricky…it depends on what one means by “information”. Does the question ask: Where does one find HOW to blog? I’d like that answer myself, because nobody seems to have an exact formula. If one means how does one obtain a popular and interesting blog? There are clever people who know how to do that and if one is paying attention, one can easily find those. The authors are usually pretty willing to share the ‘secret of their success’ too.
Who is your go-to author on a bad day?
I have several, but one that always provides uplifting humor is Robert Fulgham.
Which book would you love to read but haven’t got around to it yet?
John Updike’s “The Witches of Eastwick”
What would make you DNF a book? (Did Not Finish)?
Inability to live up to the potential they may have shown in their first effort. Right now, for example, I’m reading an English cozy murder mystery series. I’m about a third of the way through the third book and it’s a yawn. Sad really, because the first book was pretty darn excellent. I finished another series (got through it, but barely) in that theme (English murder mystery cozy) about a chef who (a la Miss Marple) stumbles over murders. There were five books in the series (to date) and four of them were great, but I noticed by the end of number four, the author had either lost interest in the series OR was struggling to find fresh input. The fifth book was so awful I’m pretty sure I won’t read another if she publishes one.
Show us Your Shelf
Hah! Nice shelf. Thanks, Mel.
The reason I asked the question about blogging is that I feel I have learnt a lot since I started but there is no one place to find information about it – especially the more technical aspects. I’ve done a lot of Googling and asking other people questions.
I had not heard of Robert Fulgham but this book, All I really need to know I learned in Kindergarten, looks like a light and uplifting read.
True Shelf Series #1: Taylor Wells
True Shelf Series #2: Stacy Alderman
True Shelf Series #3: Laura Bailey
Note: I’ve had a great response to this! Really appreciate the interest, everyone. I will get one of these posts up every few days. Please do interact and let the featured bloggers know their posts are being read, and maybe follow someone new!
There was a time when I would have felt completely at home as an avid reader. But time has made me less a reader than a listener. My eyes aren’t great and I find it hard to focus on text. The good news? I’ve come to really love audiobooks and narration. Listening is also reading and in many ways, I think I get more out of listening than I did by reading, probably because I was a very fast reader. Listening, I can only hear at the speed of human speech and I think I hear more than I read. Congratulations on this blog. I wanted to do more book reviews than I do, but somehow, it didn’t work out that way.
Hi Marilyn, I really love audiobooks too, especially listening in the car or while cooking tea. Thanks for your kind comments about my blog. Have you listened to anything good recently?
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